Chino Hills State Park, once cattle grazing pastures and privately owned ranch land in the Santa Ana Mountains, opened in 1984 to the public with the help of Hills for Everyone, a citizens group that continues to fight to protect open space from development.

Today there is more than 14,000 acres of wilderness. The park is a local mecca for day hikers and mountain bikers. It is also a refuge for many native-California plants and animals, and a link in the Puente-Chino Hills Wildlife Corridor. More than 90 percent of the park was torched in the 2008 Freeway Complex fire. The landscape's rehabilitation continues today.

The park, dubbed an island of tranquility in a sea of urbanization, stretches 31 miles through portions of Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties.

"Being surrounded by such urbanization, it's an amazing place to go to," said Kelly Elliott, the park's superintendent. "You feel as though you're in a totally different place. You can be in the middle of the park and have no idea what is surrounding you."

Among the endangered species that call the park's canyons and hills home is the least bell's vireo, a small bird making a comeback in the protected habitat.

On April 20, 36 volunteers gathered at the Chino Hills Discovery Center in Brea to participate in the annual restoration and clean up, picking up trash and removing non-native plants.

For two years, the park was closed to the public three days a week because of state budget cuts but returned to a seven-day-a-week schedule on April 1.

Then there is the smaller Carbon Canyon Regional Park, operated by the Orange County parks division.

There is a hiking trail, a native garden, volleyball courts, playgrounds and barbeques. The fishing lake will be dredged to 8 feet in 2014 and stocked with catfish and bluegill.

But it's the 10-acre grove of coastal redwoods – an Arbor Day donation in 1975 from Bank of America to commemorate the park's opening – that draws many visitors.

"That's the crown jewel of Carbon Canyon," said Ranger Joanne Taylor.

Taylor spent four years working to develop and cultivate the native garden on the park's east end. When Taylor first arrived at the park, the plot was covered in morning glory and mustard plants.

"I learned and studied and went to workshops to learn what native plants would work," she said. "Then I got busy."

Today, the 1-acre native garden is thriving with blossoming monkey-flowers, irises, heuchera plants, buckwheat and sage. The park, on the outskirts of Brea and on the road to Olinda Village, is a popular draw for locals. But more and more visitors from outside the region are stopping by, Taylor said.

Taylor recommends that visitors stop by the native garden, then stroll along the hiking trail into the grove of redwoods.

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